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Tuesday, January 28, 2014

IT'S DLR'S BIRTHDAY SO CELEBRATE WITH HIM BY STUDYING THE DLRX-GUARD.

Yes, you saw right! It's the legendary Professor Ricardo De la Riva's birthday today. To celebrate this momentous occasion we think you should hit the mats a work his guard for the night.

An "Old School" way to use the DLR was to cross the hook foot, through the leg and hook it onto your opponents far hip. After many years of training and evolution that fell by the wayside and it was no longer in vogue, especially when guys started attacking leg locks. Well for some, including myself and some guy named JT Torres, that particular style of DLR hook is perfectly acceptable. JT uses this particular way of trapping to isolate both legs and create a fulcrum which he has many options to sweep from. The detail lies in the the fact that he hooks the back of his opponents leg with the non-DLR hook, which creates an X on the far leg and hip. From there he can sweep left, right or come up for the almost unstoppable single leg. This combination of techniques is very diverse and effective, and you can hit it from a variety of positions as well. I often find myself hitting it when my opponent stays low in my half guard and then tries a kneecut pass.

Anyway check out this wonderfully done study of the JT DLRX-guard and honor Mestre De la Riva by sweeping those white belts and making them faceplant as hard as possible onto the mats. OSSSS...